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The Devil Wears Prada (film)
Encyclopedia
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film
, a loose screen adaptation
of Lauren Weisberger
's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway
as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor
Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep
. Emily Blunt
and Stanley Tucci
co-star in support of the two leads, as catty co-assistant Emily Charlton, and critical yet supportive Art Director Nigel, respectively. Adrian Grenier
, Simon Baker
and Tracie Thoms
play key supporting roles. Wendy Finerman
produced and David Frankel
directed; the film was distributed by 20th Century Fox
.
Streep's performance drew rave reviews from critics and later earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as the Golden Globe
for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Blunt also drew favorable notice and nominations, as did many of those involved in the film's production. While critical reaction to the film as a whole was more measured, it was well received by the public, becoming a surprise summer box-office hit following its June 30 North American release. The commercial success and critical praise for Streep's performance continued in foreign markets, with the film leading the international box office for most of October. The U.S. DVD release likewise was the top rental during December. Ultimately, it would gross over $300 million, mostly from its international run, and finish in 2006's top 20 both in the U.S. and overseas. It is also the second highest-grossing film in Streep's career (the first being Mamma Mia!
) and the third highest in Hathaway's career, the first two being Alice in Wonderland
and Rio
.
Although the movie is set in the fashion world, most designers and other fashion notables avoided appearing as themselves for fear of displeasing U.S. Vogue
editor Anna Wintour
, who is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Priestly. Many designers allowed their clothes and accessories
to be used in the film, making it the most expensively costumed film in history. Wintour later overcame her initial skepticism, saying she liked the film and Streep in particular.
) is an aspiring journalist fresh out of Northwestern University
. Despite ridiculing the shallowness of the fashion industry, she lands the job "a million girls would kill for": junior personal assistant
to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep
), the icy editor-in-chief of Runway fashion magazine. Andy puts up with Miranda's bizarre and humiliating treatment in hopes of getting a job as a reporter or writer somewhere else. At first, Andy fumbles with her job and fits in poorly with her catty coworkers, especially Miranda's senior assistant Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt
).
During a dinner with her father who came to visit her in New York City, Miranda calls her: the airports in Florida where she is are all closed due to a hurricane but she needs to get home and orders Andy to get her home somehow. Andy tries every airline company there is, but none of them are flying out because of the weather. When Miranda does arrive back at the office she tells Andy she has disappointed her more than any other of her previous assistants.
Andy has a talk with Runways art director Nigel (Stanley Tucci
), who gives a whole new perspective of Miranda, her work and fashion in general. Andy decides to change and - initially with Nigel's help
- gradually learns her responsibilities and begins to dress more stylishly. Slowly but surely, Andy begins to sacrifice her personal life to her career. Miranda notices the change in Andy and gives her a new task: delivering "The Book" (a mock-up of the next edition's feature spreads) to her Upper East Side
townhome. However, Andy is tricked by Miranda's daughters into going upstairs, where she inadvertently walks in on Miranda and her husband arguing. Mortified, she drops the book and leaves.
Miranda punishes Andy by giving her an impossible task: securing the unpublished manuscript for the next book in the Harry Potter
series for her twin daughters to read on the train. Andy is just about to quit when Christian Thompson (Simon Baker
), a famous writer and acquaintance of Andy's informs her he has obtained it for her. Andy delivers the copies to a stunned Miranda and keeps her job, much to her boyfriend's disappointment.
When Emily falls ill, Miranda commands Andy to accompany the two of them to a charity benefit, where the two masquerade as partygoers while actually reminding her of important information about the people approaching her for greeting. At the event, Andy saves Miranda from being embarrassed by Emily, who had forgotten one of the names; meets Jacqueline Follet, the editor-in-chief of French Runway and Miranda's rival; turns down an offer to meet a big publisher from Christian, but all the while misses her boyfriend's birthday party.
One evening, while returning The Book, Miranda informs her that she needs "the best team possible" for her Paris trip, which means stepping over Emily. Andy hesitates, as Emily has been boasting about going to Paris for months, but Miranda tells her that declining will send the message that she is not committed to her job or any future job at another publication. Faced with this threat, Andy accepts. The next day Miranda then tells Andy to be the bearer of bad news to Emily who, meanwhile, is hurrying back to the office after purchasing scarves from Hermes of Paris for Miranda. Just as Andy is about to tell her, Emily crosses at a "no cross" point and is hit by a taxi. Andy has a rough day confronting Emily about Paris and then at her friend Lily's art gallery, where she accepts a kiss on the cheek from Christian. Lily catches this and berates Andy, to then confront her boyfriend about the fact that she is going to Paris. He realizes that they no longer have anything in common, and they break up.
In Paris, Andy attends the shows and even meets designer Valentino Garavani, being introduced as “the new Emily”. One night Andy comes into Miranda's suite only to find her in her bathrobe, undressed, and crying. While deciding on a seating chart, Miranda opens up saying that her husband is divorcing her, but that her biggest worry is for her daughters, who have lost yet another father figure. Later, Andy learns from Nigel that he has landed a job as creative director at fashion designer James Holt's new company. Andy has dinner with Christian who figures out that she is single again. After a few glasses of wine she succumbs to Christian's charms and the two have sex.
In his hotel room the next morning, while dressing, Andy finds out that Runway' s owner is planning to replace Miranda with Jacqueline Follet. Andy storms out to find Miranda and warn her. When Andy finally tells her, Miranda seems unfazed. At a luncheon in honor of James Holt, Miranda announces that Jacqueline will be the new creative director of James Holt's company much to the surprise of Andy and Nigel.
En route to another event, Miranda explains to a still-stunned Andy that she knew about the plan to get rid of her all along, but she found an alternative for Jacqueline and presented "The List" (a list of all the designers, stylists, company owners, and models that were "raised and nurtured" by Miranda and who have promised their loyalty to her whenever and should she ever leave Runway) to the owner of Runway, who realized that without those people, Runway would suffer greatly, and was forced to reconsider. Miranda also says that she was pleased by Andy's display of loyalty and that she sees a great deal of herself in her. Andy says she could never do to anyone what Miranda did to Nigel. Miranda replies that she already did, in stepping over Emily. Miranda tentatively comforts her, saying that those choices are necessary to live the life that she lives. At the event, Andy gets out of the car and simply walks away. When receiving a call from Miranda, she throws her phone into a fountain on the Place de la Concorde
.
Back in New York, she meets her boyfriend for breakfast. He has accepted an offer to work as a sous-chef in a popular Boston restaurant. Andy is disappointed, but her hope is rejuvenated when he says they could work something out.
Andy goes to an interview for a newspaper job. The interviewer reveals that Miranda told him she was by far her biggest disappointment, but that if he did not hire her, he would be an idiot. Afterwards Andy calls Emily while walking past the Runway office and offers to send Emily all of the outfits Andy got while in Paris, Emily feigns imposition saying the clothes will "absolutely drown her" but accepts. After the call Andy then sees Miranda getting into her car across the street. They exchange looks and Andy smiles at her, but Miranda acts as if the two are strangers, which Andy takes in good grace. Once in the car, Miranda smiles slightly before curtly telling her driver, "Go.".
and producer Wendy Finerman
had originally read The Devil Wears Prada in book proposal form. It would be Frankel's second theatrical feature. He, cinematographer
Florian Ballhaus
and costume designer Patricia Field
, drew heavily on their experience in making Sex and the City
.
Principal photography
took place over 57 days in New York and Paris between October and December 2005. The film's budget was $35 million.
Ballhaus, at Finerman and Frankel's suggestion, composed as many shots as possible, whether interiors or exteriors, to at least partially take in busy New York street scenes in the background, to convey the excitement of working in a glamorous industry in New York. He also used a handheld camera
during some of the busier meeting scenes in Miranda's office, to better convey the flow of action, and slow motion for Andrea's entrance into the office following her makeover. A few process shot
s were necessary, mainly to put exterior views behind windows on sets and in the Mercedes where Miranda and Andrea are having their climactic conversation.
lunch are retained from the novel. Streep prepared by reading a book by Wintour protegé Liz Tilberis and the memos of Vogue editor Diana Vreeland
. She lost enough weight during shooting that the clothes had to be taken in.
Hathaway prepared for the part by volunteering for a week as an assistant at an auction
house; Frankel said she was "terrified" before starting her first scene with Streep. The older actress began her working relationship with Hathaway by saying first "I think you're perfect for the role and I'm so happy we're going to be working on this together" then warning her that was the last nice thing she would say. Streep applied this philosophy to everyone else on set as well, keeping her distance from the cast and crewmembers unless it was necessary to discuss something with them.
She also suggested the editorial meeting scene, which does not advance the plot but shows Miranda at work without Andrea present. It was also her idea that Miranda not wear makeup in the scene where she opens up to Andrea and worries about the effect on her daughters of her divorce becoming public knowledge.
, before on his feature-film debut, Miami Rhapsody
as well as Sex and the City
, knew that what the cast wore would be of utmost importance in a movie set in the fashion industry. "My approach was to hire her and then leave the room," he joked later.
While none appeared onscreen, designers were very helpful to Field. Her $100,000 budget for the film's costumes was supplemented by help from friends from throughout the industry. Ultimately, she believes, at least $1 million worth of clothing was used in the film, making it one of the most expensively costumed movies in cinema history. The single priciest item was a $100,000 Fred Leighton necklace
on Streep.
Chanel
asked to dress Hathaway for the film, and Dolce & Gabbana
and Calvin Klein
helped Field as well; with some contributions from Lebanese designer Georges Chakra
. Although Field avoids making Streep look like Wintour, she dresses her in generous helpings of Prada
. (By Field's own estimate, 40% of the shoes on Streep's feet are Prada.) Field added that much of the audience would not be familiar with Wintour's look and that "Meryl looks nothing like Anna, so even if I wanted to copy Anna, I couldn't." But, like Wintour and her Vogue predecessor Diana Vreeland
, the two realized that Miranda needed a signature look, which was provided primarily by the white wig and forelock
she wore as well as the clothes the two spent much time poring over look-books for.
Field said she avoided prevailing fashion trends for Miranda during production in favor of a more timeless look based on Donna Karan
archives and pieces by Michaele Vollbracht for Bill Blass
, a look she describes as "rich-lady clothes." She didn't want people to easily recognize what Miranda was wearing.
She contrasted Andrea and Emily by giving Andrea a "textbook" sense of style, without much risk-taking, that would suggest clothing a fashion magazine would have on hand for shoots. Much of her high-fashion wardrobe is Chanel, with some Calvin Klein
thrown in for good measure. Blunt, on the other hand was "so on the edge she's almost falling off." For her, Field chose pieces by Vivienne Westwood
and Rick Owens
, to suggest a taste for funkier, more "underground" clothing. After the film's release, some of the looks Field chose became popular, to the filmmakers' amusement.
Tucci praised Field's skill in putting ensembles together that were not only stylish but helped him develop his character:
He found one Dries van Noten
tie he wore during the film to his liking and kept it.
called it). Miranda's office bears some strong similarities to the real office of Anna Wintour, down to an octagonal mirror on the wall, photographs and a floral arrangement on the desk (a similarity so marked Wintour had her office redecorated after the movie). The magazine itself is very similar to Vogue, and one of the covers on the wall of the office, showing three models, is a direct homage
to the August 2004 cover of that magazine.
She even chose separate computer wallpaper to highlight different aspects of Blunt's and Hathaway's character: Paris's Arc de Triomphe
on Blunt's suggests her aspirations to accompany Miranda to the shows there, while the floral image on Andy's suggests the natural, unassuming qualities she displays at the outset of her tenure with the magazine. For the photo of Andrea with her parents, Hathaway posed with her own mother and David Marshall Grant
. One of the purported Harry Potter manuscript
s was later sold at auction for $586 on eBay
, along with various clothing used in the film, to benefit Dress for Success, a charity which provides business clothing to help women transition into the workforce.
The crew was in Paris for only two days, and used only exteriors. Streep did not make the trip.
realized, as McKenna had on the other end, that the film worked best when it focused on the Andrea-Miranda storyline. Accordingly, he cut a number of primarily transitional scenes, such as Andrea's job interview and the Runway staff's trip to Holt's studio. He also took out a scene early on where Miranda complimented Andrea. Upon reviewing them for the DVD, Frankel admitted he hadn't even seen them before, since Livolsi didn't include them in any prints he sent to the director.
Frankel praised Livolsi for making the film's four key montages
— the opening credits, Miranda's coat-tossing, Andrea's makeover and the Paris introduction — work. The third was particularly challenging as it uses passing cars and other obstructions to cover Hathaway's changes of outfit. Some scenes were also created in the editing room, such as the reception at the museum, where Livolsi wove B-roll
footage in to keep the action flowing.
relied heavily on guitar and percussion, with the backing of a full orchestra
, to capture a contemporary urban sound. He ultimately wrote 35 minutes of music for the film, which were performed and recorded by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, conducted by Pete Anthony. His work was balanced with songs by U2
("City of Blinding Lights
," Miranda and Andrea in Paris), Madonna
("Vogue" & "Jump
," Andrea's fashion montage & her first day on the job, respectively), KT Tunstall
("Suddenly I See
," female montage during opening credits
), Alanis Morissette
("Crazy
," Central Park
photo shoot), Bitter:Sweet
("Our Remains," Andrea picks up James Holt's sketches for Miranda; Bittersweet Faith, Lily's art show), Azure Ray
("Sleep," following the breakdown of her relationship with Nate), Jamiroquai
("Seven Days In Sunny June," Andrea and Christian meet at James Holt's party) among others. Frankel had wanted to use "City of Blinding Lights" in the film since he had used it as a soundtrack to a video montage of Paris scenes he had put together after scouting locations there. Likewise, Field had advocated just as strongly for "Vogue."
The soundtrack album was released on July 11 by Warner Music
. It includes all the songs mentioned above (except Madonna's "Jump") as well as a suite of Shapiro's themes. Among the tracks not included is "Suddenly I See," which disappointed many fans. It became popular as a result of the film although the single did not crack the U.S. Top Forty
. It nonetheless became a popular radio hit.
's marketing
department that were meant to be preliminary wound up being integral to promoting the film. The first was the creation of the red stiletto heel
ending in a pitchfork
as the film's teaser poster
. It was so successful and effective, becoming almost "icon
ic" (in Finerman's words), that it was used for the actual release poster as well. It became a brand, and was eventually used on every medium related to the film — the tie-in reprinting of the novel and the soundtrack
and DVD covers as well.
The studio also put together a trailer
of scenes and images strictly from the first three minutes of the film, in which Andrea meets Miranda for the first time, to be used at previews and film festival
s until they could create a more standard trailer drawing from the whole film. But, again, this proved so effective with early audiences it was retained as the main trailer, since it created anticipation for the rest of the film without giving anything away.
reported the film had an average score of 62%, based on 40 reviews.
The film holds a 75% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes
based on 184 reviews.
Initial reviews of the film focused primarily on Streep's performance, praising her for making an extremely unsympathetic character far more complex than she had been in the novel. "With her silver hair and pale skin, her whispery diction as perfect as her posture, Ms. Streep's Miranda inspires both terror and a measure of awe," wrote A. O. Scott
in The New York Times
. "No longer simply the incarnation of evil, she is now a vision of aristocratic, purposeful and surprisingly human grace."
Kyle Smith
agreed at the New York Post
: "The snaky Streep wisely chooses not to imitate Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the book, but creates her own surprisingly believable character."
"Wintour should be flattered by Streep's portrayal," agreed Jack Mathews in the Daily News
.
David Edelstein
, in New York
magazine, criticized the film as "thin", but praised Streep for her "fabulous minimalist
performance."
J. Hoberman, Edelstein's onetime colleague at The Village Voice
, called the movie an improvement on the book and said Streep was "the scariest, most nuanced, funniest movie villainess since Tilda Swinton
's nazified White Witch
[in 2005's
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
]."
Blunt, too, earned some favorable notice. "[She] has many of the movie's best lines and steals nearly every scene she's in," wrote Clifford Pugh in the Houston Chronicle
. Other reviewers and fans concurred.
Roger Ebert
gave the movie "thumbs down," while Richard Roeper
gave it a "thumbs up."
While all critics were in agreement about Streep and Blunt, they pointed to other weaknesses, particularly in the story. Reviewers familiar with Weisberger's novel assented to her judgement that McKenna's script greatly improved upon it. A rare exception was Angela Baldassare at MSN Canada, who felt the film needed more of the nastiness others had told her was abundant in the novel.
David Denby
summed up this response in his New Yorker
review: "The Devil Wears Prada tells a familiar story, and it never goes much below the surface of what it has to tell. Still, what a surface!"
Reactions to Hathaway's performance were not as unanimous as for many of her costars. Denby said "she suggests, with no more than a panicky sidelong glance, what Weisberger takes pages to describe." On the other hand, to Baldassare, she "barely carrie[d] the load."
Amid the generally positive reception for the film, there were two criticisms apart from aesthetics
. Some journalists familiar with the fashion world thought its portrayal unrealistic, and some gay viewers took issue with how the film presented Nigel.
Booth Moore at Los Angeles Times
chided Field for creating a "fine fashion fantasy with little to do with reality," a world that reflects what outsiders think fashion is like rather than what the industry actually is. Unlike the movie, in her experience fashionistas were less likely to wear makeup and more likely to value edgier dressing styles (that would not include toe rings).
"If they want a documentary, they can watch the History Channel," retorted Field. Another newspaper fashion writer, Hadley Freeman of The Guardian
, likewise complained the film was awash in the sexism
and cliché
s that, to her, beset movies about fashion in general.
Charla Krupp, the executive editor of SHOP, Inc., says "It's the first film I've seen that got it right ... [It] has the nuances of the politics and the tension better than any film — and the backstabbing and sucking-up." Joanna Coles, the editor of the U.S. edition of Marie Claire
, agreed:
Ginia Bellefante, former fashion reporter for The New York Times
, also agreed, calling it "easily the truest portrayal of fashion culture since Unzipped
" and giving it credit for depicting the way fashion had changed in the early 21st century. Her colleague Ruth La Ferla found a different opinion from industry insiders after a special preview screening. Most found the fashion in the movie too safe and the beauty too overstated, more in tune with the 1980s than the 2000s. "My job is to present an entertainment, a world people can visit and take a little trip," responded Field.
that he played the part with no doubt whatsoever that the character was gay. While many viewers, gay and straight, shared the assumption, nothing in the film directly suggests his sexual orientation other than a brief glance he makes at an attractive man. In the novel, he, and the other male Runway staffers are proudly homosexual, often described as flamboyant, freely discussing their sex lives, and sometimes checking each other out.
There is none of this in the film. Instead, Nigel tells Andrea that, as a child, he told his family he was attending soccer practice when he was really taking sewing
lessons, and read Runway under the covers of his bed at night with a flashlight. Finerman also says that during his first scene in the film, his visit to Andrea's hotel room in Paris to celebrate his imminent promotion, they had not yet decided how "extravagant" he would be. The film also gives no indication that he is involved in any male/female marriage or relationship with a woman. Jeffy and James, two of the gay men in the novel, were eliminated, leading a viewer, David Poland, to point out this aspect of the film on his blog, The Hot Button, but also noted that it was part of a general desexualization that led him to call the movie No Sex in the City. Queer Beacon found Tucci's portrayal refreshingly free of overdone stereotypes, while another gay blogger expressed his displeasure that a movie about an industry well-known for its openly gay men seemed so determined to avoid the subject. Controversy notwithstanding, readers of Gay.com
voted the film the best of 2006. William Maltese, from AfterElton.com, called it "refreshing that the jokes in Devil do not come at Nigel's expense or because of his sexuality." It is also mentioned that Nigel is key for Andy's transformation from ugly-duck-to-swan that propels her into the second half of the film.
Queer Beacon also wondered if Doug might be gay, since he is more aware of Miranda's importance to fashion than Andrea; also, later, when Lily takes him from Andrea at the gallery to introduce him to "someone he might find interesting," she doesn't specify that person's gender. Sommer wrote that Doug was not written to be gay and was merely based on a friend of McKenna's.
, and added $13 million more during the first week. This success led Fox to add 35 more screens the next week, the widest domestic distribution the film enjoyed. Although it was never any week's top-grossing film, it remained in the top 10 through July. Its theatrical run continued through December 10, shortly before the DVD release.
It had a very successful run in theaters, making nearly $125 million in the United States and Canada and over $325 million worldwide, a career high for both Meryl Streep, until Mamma Mia was released in 2008 and surpassed it, and Anne Hathaway, until Alice in Wonderland
surpassed it in 2010 (as well as Get Smart in 2008, domestically)http://boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Actor&id=annehathaway.htm.
attended the film's New York premiere
, wearing Prada
. Her friend Barbara Amiel
reported that she said shortly afterward that the movie would go straight to DVD. But in an interview with Barbara Walters
that aired the day the DVD was released, she called the film "really entertaining" and said she appreciated the "decisive" nature of Streep's portrayal. "Anything that makes fashion entertaining and glamorous and interesting is wonderful for our industry. So I was 100 percent behind it." Streep said Wintour was "probably more upset by the book than the film."
The Devil Wears Prada topped the charts on its first major European release weekend on October 9, after a strong September Oceania and Latin America opening. It would be the highest-grossing film that weekend in Britain, Spain and Russia, taking in $41.5 million overall. Continued strong weekends as it opened across the rest of Europe helped it remain atop the overseas charts for the rest of the month. By the end of the year only its Chinese opening remained; it was released there on February 28, 2007.
Most reviews from the international press echoed the domestic response, heaping praise on Streep and the other actors, but calling the whole film "predictable." The Guardian
s Peter Bradshaw
, who found the film "moderately entertaining," took Blunt to task, calling her a "real disappointment ... strained and awkward." In The Independent
, Anthony Quinn said Streep "may just have given us a classic here" and concluded that the film as a whole was "as snappy and juicy as fresh bubblegum."
In most markets the title remained unchanged; either the English was used or a translation into the local language. The only exceptions were Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela, where it was El diablo que viste Prada and El diablo se viste à la moda. In Poland, the title was Diabeł ubiera się u Prady which roughly means "The Devil dresses (itself) at Prada" rather than "The Devil Wears Prada." In Turkey, the title was "Şeytan Marka Giyer," roughly translated as "The Devil Wears Brand-Names." In Romania, the title was "Diavolul se îmbracă de la Prada," which roughly means "The Devil Dresses itself from Prada", the same construction being found in the French title, "Le Diable s'habille en Prada". The Japanese version is titled "プラダを着た悪魔", which translates as "The devil wearing Prada".
Variety
Blockbuster Book to Film Award. A committee of staffers at the magazine made the nominations and chose the award winner. Editor Peter Bart
praised both works.
The film was honored
by the National Board of Review as one of the year's ten best. The American Film Institute
gave the film similar recognition
.
The film received ample attention from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
when its Golden Globe Award
nominations
were announced on December 14, 2006. The film itself was in the running for Best Picture (Comedy/Musical) and Supporting Actress (for Blunt). Streep later won the Globe for Best Actress (Musical/Comedy).
On January 4, 2007, her fellow members of the Screen Actors Guild
nominated Streep for Best Actress as well.
Four days later, at the National Society of Film Critics
awards
, Streep won Best Supporting Actress for her work both in Devil and A Prairie Home Companion
. McKenna earned a nomination from the Writers Guild of America Award
for Best Adapted Screenplay on January 11, 2007.
The following day, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
announced its 2006 nominations
; Blunt, Field, McKenna and Streep were all among the nominees, as were makeup artist and hairstylists Nicki Ledermann and Angel de Angelis.
On January 23, 2007 Streep received her 14th Academy Award nomination
for Best Actress
, lengthening her record from 13 for most nominations by any actor male or female. Field received a Costume Design
nomination as well. Neither won, but Blunt and Hathaway presented the last mentioned award, amusing the audience by slipping into their characters for a few lines, nervously asking which of them had gotten Streep her cappuccino
. Streep played along with a stern expression before smiling.
. It was to be produced by Fox Television Studios
.
The series was to be based on the book and 2006 film (which was produced by 20th Century Fox
), but with the premise adjusted for the confines of a traditional half-hour or one-hour dramedy with a single camera set-up. Fox TV president Angela Shapiro-Mathes told Variety
: "The TV series will not be exactly like the movie or the book. The reason you loved the book and the reason you loved the movie was these were characters you really cared about in a world you wanted to learn more about. You can't read that book and not feel that the two characters are ones that you want to keep following. It's something you can get really passionate about." The project never got to the pilot stage, and was shelved.
Closed captions in French and Spanish are also available. The DVD is available in both full screen and widescreen versions. Pictures of the cast and the tagline
"Hell on Heels" were added to the red-heel image for the cover. It was released in the UK on February 5, 2007.
A Blu-ray Disc
of the film was released simultaneuously with the DVD. The featurettes were dropped and replaced with a subtitle
pop-up trivia track that can be watched by itself or along with the audio commentary.
Frankel generally approved of his editor's choices, but differed on one scene, showing Andrea on her errand to the Calvin Klein
showroom. He felt that scene showed Andrea's job was about more than running personal errands for Miranda.
; a 2009 documentary film which follows Anna Wintour prior to the release of the September 2007 Vogue issue.
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
, a loose screen adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Lauren Weisberger
Lauren Weisberger
Lauren Weisberger is an American novelist and author of the 2003 bestseller The Devil Wears Prada, a speculated roman à clef of her real life experience as a put-upon assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour....
's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor
Fashion journalism
Fashion journalism is an umbrella term used to describe all aspects of published fashion media. It includes fashion writers, fashion critics or fashion reporters...
Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
. Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
and Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
co-star in support of the two leads, as catty co-assistant Emily Charlton, and critical yet supportive Art Director Nigel, respectively. Adrian Grenier
Adrian Grenier
Adrian Grenier is an American actor, musician and director. He is best known for his lead role on the HBO original series, Entourage, as Vincent Chase.-Early life:...
, Simon Baker
Simon Baker
Simon Baker is an Australian actor. Since 2008, he has starred in the CBS television series The Mentalist.-Early life:...
and Tracie Thoms
Tracie Thoms
Tracie Nicole Thoms is an American television, film, and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in Rent, Cold Case, The Devil Wears Prada, Death Proof, and the short-lived Fox television series Wonderfalls....
play key supporting roles. Wendy Finerman
Wendy Finerman
Wendy Finerman is an American producer of nearly a dozen feature films. She was one of three producers who won the Academy Award for Best Picture for Forrest Gump in 1994 and a BAFTA Award for Fairy Tale in 1998. She has also produced such popular films as The Fan, Stepmom, Drumline, and The Devil...
produced and David Frankel
David Frankel
David Frankel is an American director, screenwriter and executive producer. He is the son of Max Frankel, a former executive editor of The New York Times...
directed; the film was distributed by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
.
Streep's performance drew rave reviews from critics and later earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as the Golden Globe
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Blunt also drew favorable notice and nominations, as did many of those involved in the film's production. While critical reaction to the film as a whole was more measured, it was well received by the public, becoming a surprise summer box-office hit following its June 30 North American release. The commercial success and critical praise for Streep's performance continued in foreign markets, with the film leading the international box office for most of October. The U.S. DVD release likewise was the top rental during December. Ultimately, it would gross over $300 million, mostly from its international run, and finish in 2006's top 20 both in the U.S. and overseas. It is also the second highest-grossing film in Streep's career (the first being Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia! (film)
Mamma Mia! is a 2008 musical/romantic comedy film adapted from the 1999 West End/2001 Broadway musical of the same name, based on the songs of successful pop group ABBA, with additional music composed by ABBA member Benny Andersson...
) and the third highest in Hathaway's career, the first two being Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
and Rio
Rio (film)
Rio, often promoted as Rio: The Movie, is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated musical comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and directed by Carlos Saldanha. The title refers to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, in which the film is set. The film features the voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne...
.
Although the movie is set in the fashion world, most designers and other fashion notables avoided appearing as themselves for fear of displeasing U.S. Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
editor Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour, OBE is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for...
, who is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Priestly. Many designers allowed their clothes and accessories
Fashion accessory
Fashion accessories are decorative items that supplement and complement clothes, such as jewelery, gloves, handbags, hats, belts, scarves, wigs, watches, sunglasses, pins, stockings, bow ties, hand fans, leg warmers, leggings, neckties, suspenders, and tights....
to be used in the film, making it the most expensively costumed film in history. Wintour later overcame her initial skepticism, saying she liked the film and Streep in particular.
Plot
Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
) is an aspiring journalist fresh out of Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. Despite ridiculing the shallowness of the fashion industry, she lands the job "a million girls would kill for": junior personal assistant
Personal assistant
A personal assistant or personal aide is someone who assists in daily business or personal tasks. It is common in design to have a PDA, or personal design assistant....
to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
), the icy editor-in-chief of Runway fashion magazine. Andy puts up with Miranda's bizarre and humiliating treatment in hopes of getting a job as a reporter or writer somewhere else. At first, Andy fumbles with her job and fits in poorly with her catty coworkers, especially Miranda's senior assistant Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
).
During a dinner with her father who came to visit her in New York City, Miranda calls her: the airports in Florida where she is are all closed due to a hurricane but she needs to get home and orders Andy to get her home somehow. Andy tries every airline company there is, but none of them are flying out because of the weather. When Miranda does arrive back at the office she tells Andy she has disappointed her more than any other of her previous assistants.
Andy has a talk with Runways art director Nigel (Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
), who gives a whole new perspective of Miranda, her work and fashion in general. Andy decides to change and - initially with Nigel's help
Mentorship
Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person....
- gradually learns her responsibilities and begins to dress more stylishly. Slowly but surely, Andy begins to sacrifice her personal life to her career. Miranda notices the change in Andy and gives her a new task: delivering "The Book" (a mock-up of the next edition's feature spreads) to her Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
townhome. However, Andy is tricked by Miranda's daughters into going upstairs, where she inadvertently walks in on Miranda and her husband arguing. Mortified, she drops the book and leaves.
Miranda punishes Andy by giving her an impossible task: securing the unpublished manuscript for the next book in the Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series for her twin daughters to read on the train. Andy is just about to quit when Christian Thompson (Simon Baker
Simon Baker
Simon Baker is an Australian actor. Since 2008, he has starred in the CBS television series The Mentalist.-Early life:...
), a famous writer and acquaintance of Andy's informs her he has obtained it for her. Andy delivers the copies to a stunned Miranda and keeps her job, much to her boyfriend's disappointment.
When Emily falls ill, Miranda commands Andy to accompany the two of them to a charity benefit, where the two masquerade as partygoers while actually reminding her of important information about the people approaching her for greeting. At the event, Andy saves Miranda from being embarrassed by Emily, who had forgotten one of the names; meets Jacqueline Follet, the editor-in-chief of French Runway and Miranda's rival; turns down an offer to meet a big publisher from Christian, but all the while misses her boyfriend's birthday party.
One evening, while returning The Book, Miranda informs her that she needs "the best team possible" for her Paris trip, which means stepping over Emily. Andy hesitates, as Emily has been boasting about going to Paris for months, but Miranda tells her that declining will send the message that she is not committed to her job or any future job at another publication. Faced with this threat, Andy accepts. The next day Miranda then tells Andy to be the bearer of bad news to Emily who, meanwhile, is hurrying back to the office after purchasing scarves from Hermes of Paris for Miranda. Just as Andy is about to tell her, Emily crosses at a "no cross" point and is hit by a taxi. Andy has a rough day confronting Emily about Paris and then at her friend Lily's art gallery, where she accepts a kiss on the cheek from Christian. Lily catches this and berates Andy, to then confront her boyfriend about the fact that she is going to Paris. He realizes that they no longer have anything in common, and they break up.
In Paris, Andy attends the shows and even meets designer Valentino Garavani, being introduced as “the new Emily”. One night Andy comes into Miranda's suite only to find her in her bathrobe, undressed, and crying. While deciding on a seating chart, Miranda opens up saying that her husband is divorcing her, but that her biggest worry is for her daughters, who have lost yet another father figure. Later, Andy learns from Nigel that he has landed a job as creative director at fashion designer James Holt's new company. Andy has dinner with Christian who figures out that she is single again. After a few glasses of wine she succumbs to Christian's charms and the two have sex.
In his hotel room the next morning, while dressing, Andy finds out that Runway
En route to another event, Miranda explains to a still-stunned Andy that she knew about the plan to get rid of her all along, but she found an alternative for Jacqueline and presented "The List" (a list of all the designers, stylists, company owners, and models that were "raised and nurtured" by Miranda and who have promised their loyalty to her whenever and should she ever leave Runway) to the owner of Runway, who realized that without those people, Runway would suffer greatly, and was forced to reconsider. Miranda also says that she was pleased by Andy's display of loyalty and that she sees a great deal of herself in her. Andy says she could never do to anyone what Miranda did to Nigel. Miranda replies that she already did, in stepping over Emily. Miranda tentatively comforts her, saying that those choices are necessary to live the life that she lives. At the event, Andy gets out of the car and simply walks away. When receiving a call from Miranda, she throws her phone into a fountain on the Place de la Concorde
Place de la Concorde
The Place de la Concorde in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.- History :...
.
Back in New York, she meets her boyfriend for breakfast. He has accepted an offer to work as a sous-chef in a popular Boston restaurant. Andy is disappointed, but her hope is rejuvenated when he says they could work something out.
Andy goes to an interview for a newspaper job. The interviewer reveals that Miranda told him she was by far her biggest disappointment, but that if he did not hire her, he would be an idiot. Afterwards Andy calls Emily while walking past the Runway office and offers to send Emily all of the outfits Andy got while in Paris, Emily feigns imposition saying the clothes will "absolutely drown her" but accepts. After the call Andy then sees Miranda getting into her car across the street. They exchange looks and Andy smiles at her, but Miranda acts as if the two are strangers, which Andy takes in good grace. Once in the car, Miranda smiles slightly before curtly telling her driver, "Go.".
Cast
- Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway (actress)Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
as Andrea "Andy" Sachs: a recent Northwestern UniversityNorthwestern UniversityNorthwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
graduate and aspiring journalist who, despite no real knowledge of fashion, is hired as the junior personal assistant to the powerful and demanding editor in chief of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly. - Meryl StreepMeryl StreepMary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
as Miranda Priestly: The editor in chief of Runway. Feared by her staff and many in the fashion world, and powerful enough that she can discard a $300,000 photo shoot with impunity and lead a designer to redo an entire collection with the pursing of her lips. Nevertheless, she cares a lot about her twin daughters. - Emily BluntEmily BluntEmily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
as Emily Charlton: Miranda's haughty senior assistant, who tolerates her boss's rudeness and insults so that she may accompany her to Paris for Fall Fashion Week. - Stanley TucciStanley TucciStanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
as Nigel: Art director for Runway and the only person at the magazine Andrea feels she can trust, despite his sometimes cutting remarks about her wardrobe and weight. - Simon BakerSimon BakerSimon Baker is an Australian actor. Since 2008, he has starred in the CBS television series The Mentalist.-Early life:...
as Christian Thompson: An up-and-coming magazine writer Andrea grows increasingly attracted to, especially after his connections help her get the advance Harry PotterHarry PotterHarry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
books Miranda requests for her daughters. He hints he could help her with her journalistic aspirations. - Adrian GrenierAdrian GrenierAdrian Grenier is an American actor, musician and director. He is best known for his lead role on the HBO original series, Entourage, as Vincent Chase.-Early life:...
as Nate Cooper: Andrea's boyfriend, a cook at a Manhattan restaurant who eventually breaks up with her due to the strain her job places on their relationship. - Tracie ThomsTracie ThomsTracie Nicole Thoms is an American television, film, and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in Rent, Cold Case, The Devil Wears Prada, Death Proof, and the short-lived Fox television series Wonderfalls....
as Lily: Andrea's close friend, who runs an art gallery. - Rich SommerRich SommerRichard Olen Sommer II is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Harry Crane on the AMC series Mad Men.-Career:...
as Doug: A college friend of Andrea, Nate and Lily who seems to work as a corporate research analyst. He also shows an extensive knowledge of fashion, Runway magazine, and Miranda Priestly. - Daniel SunjataDaniel SunjataDaniel Sunjata is an American actor who performs in film, television and in the theater.-Career:...
as James Holt: An up-and-coming designer. - David Marshall GrantDavid Marshall GrantDavid Marshall Grant is an American actor and playwright.-Life and career:Grant was born in Westport, Connecticut, to physician parents...
as Richard Sachs, Andrea's father. - Tibor FeldmanTibor FeldmanTibor Feldman is an American actor, having played roles in movies, television shows, television commercials, and stage plays...
as Irv Ravitz: The board chairman of Elias-Clark (fictional version of Conde-Nast), the company that publishes Runway. - Rebecca MaderRebecca MaderRebecca Leigh Mader is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Morgan Gordon on All My Children and Charlotte Lewis on Lost.-Career:...
as Jocelyn. - Gisele BündchenGisele BündchenGisele Caroline Bündchen is a Brazilian fashion model, occasional film actress and goodwill ambassador for the UN Environment Programme.In the late 1990s, Bündchen became one of the first in a wave of Brazilian models to find success...
as Serena: An editorial staffer at Runway and friend of Emily's. - Alyssa SutherlandAlyssa SutherlandAlyssa Sutherland is an Australian-born actress and model born in Brisbane in 1982, and now based in New York City.Her modeling career began when she won the 1997 annual Bonne Belle model search of Girlfriend, a teen magazine in Australia...
as Clacker: An editorial staffer at Runway. - Ines RiveroInes RiveroMaría Inés Rivero is an Argentine model.- Life and career :Rivero was born in Córdoba, Argentina. Her mother enrolled her into a modeling school, and she made her modeling debut at the age of 14, when she worked in a local fashion show...
as Clacker at elevator - Stephanie SzostakStephanie Szostak-External links:***...
as Jacqueline Follet
Cameos
- Valentino Garavani
- Giancarlo GiammettiGiancarlo GiammettiGiancarlo Giammetti is the honorary president of the Valentino Fashion House. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 2006.- Biography :...
- Carlos de Souza
- Charlene ShortoCharlene ShortoCharlene Shorto de Ganay a.k.a. Chachá is a Brazilian socialite and the Paris-based PR and muse of Italian designer Valentino Garavani. She was married to another Valentino PR, Brazilian Carlos Cacà de Souza with whom she has had two sons Sean and Anthony...
- Bridget HallBridget HallBridget Hall is an American model.Hall was born in Springdale, Arkansas. At the age of 10, she was modeling in Dallas, Texas where she was living in the suburb of Farmers Branch, where she briefly attended R. L. Turner High School. Shortly after, she moved with her mother Donna Hall to New York...
- Heidi KlumHeidi KlumHeidi Samuel , better known by her birth name Heidi Klum, is a German model, actress, television host, businesswoman, fashion designer, television producer, and occasional singer. In 2008 she became an American citizen while maintaining her native German citizenship...
- Lauren WeisbergerLauren WeisbergerLauren Weisberger is an American novelist and author of the 2003 bestseller The Devil Wears Prada, a speculated roman à clef of her real life experience as a put-upon assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour....
(uncredited) as the twins' nanny
Production
Director David FrankelDavid Frankel
David Frankel is an American director, screenwriter and executive producer. He is the son of Max Frankel, a former executive editor of The New York Times...
and producer Wendy Finerman
Wendy Finerman
Wendy Finerman is an American producer of nearly a dozen feature films. She was one of three producers who won the Academy Award for Best Picture for Forrest Gump in 1994 and a BAFTA Award for Fairy Tale in 1998. She has also produced such popular films as The Fan, Stepmom, Drumline, and The Devil...
had originally read The Devil Wears Prada in book proposal form. It would be Frankel's second theatrical feature. He, cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Florian Ballhaus
Florian Ballhaus
Florian Ballhaus is a German cinematographer who has worked on several recent major Hollywood releases.Ballhaus was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, the son of Helga Mavia Betten and noted German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. At the age of 17, he moved to the U.S. with his family, when his father...
and costume designer Patricia Field
Patricia Field
Patricia Field is an American costume designer, stylist and fashion designer.-Life and career:Field was born in 1941 in New York City to Greek and Armenian parents, who emigrated from Lesvos, Greece. She was raised in Astoria, Queens and has claimed credit for inventing the modern legging for...
, drew heavily on their experience in making Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
.
Filming
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
took place over 57 days in New York and Paris between October and December 2005. The film's budget was $35 million.
Ballhaus, at Finerman and Frankel's suggestion, composed as many shots as possible, whether interiors or exteriors, to at least partially take in busy New York street scenes in the background, to convey the excitement of working in a glamorous industry in New York. He also used a handheld camera
Movie camera
The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film which was very popular for private use in the last century until its successor, the video camera, replaced it...
during some of the busier meeting scenes in Miranda's office, to better convey the flow of action, and slow motion for Andrea's entrance into the office following her makeover. A few process shot
Process Shot
Process Shot was a bay American Champion filly racehorse. Owned and bred by Elberon Farm, she descended from her sire Restless Wind out of a Determine mare named Possessed...
s were necessary, mainly to put exterior views behind windows on sets and in the Mercedes where Miranda and Andrea are having their climactic conversation.
Acting
Streep made a conscious decision not to play the part as a direct impression of Wintour, right down to not using an accent and making the character American rather than English ("I felt it was too restricting"). "I think she wanted people not to confuse the character of Miranda Priestly with Anna Wintour at all," said Frankel. "And that's why early on in the process she decided on a very different look for her and a different approach to the character." The "that's all," "please bore someone else ..." catchphrases; her coat-tossing on Andrea's desk and discarded steakSteak
A steak is a cut of meat . Most are cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers, improving the perceived tenderness of the meat. In North America, steaks are typically served grilled, pan-fried, or broiled. The more tender cuts from the loin and rib are cooked quickly, using dry heat, and served whole...
lunch are retained from the novel. Streep prepared by reading a book by Wintour protegé Liz Tilberis and the memos of Vogue editor Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman...
. She lost enough weight during shooting that the clothes had to be taken in.
Hathaway prepared for the part by volunteering for a week as an assistant at an auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
house; Frankel said she was "terrified" before starting her first scene with Streep. The older actress began her working relationship with Hathaway by saying first "I think you're perfect for the role and I'm so happy we're going to be working on this together" then warning her that was the last nice thing she would say. Streep applied this philosophy to everyone else on set as well, keeping her distance from the cast and crewmembers unless it was necessary to discuss something with them.
She also suggested the editorial meeting scene, which does not advance the plot but shows Miranda at work without Andrea present. It was also her idea that Miranda not wear makeup in the scene where she opens up to Andrea and worries about the effect on her daughters of her divorce becoming public knowledge.
Costuming
Frankel, who had worked with Patricia FieldPatricia Field
Patricia Field is an American costume designer, stylist and fashion designer.-Life and career:Field was born in 1941 in New York City to Greek and Armenian parents, who emigrated from Lesvos, Greece. She was raised in Astoria, Queens and has claimed credit for inventing the modern legging for...
, before on his feature-film debut, Miami Rhapsody
Miami Rhapsody
Miami Rhapsody is a 1995 American romantic comedy film starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Gil Bellows, Antonio Banderas, Mia Farrow, Paul Mazursky, Kevin Pollak, Barbara Garrick, and Carla Gugino. It was written, produced, and directed by David Frankel, with music composed by Mark Isham.-Plot:Gwyn...
as well as Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
, knew that what the cast wore would be of utmost importance in a movie set in the fashion industry. "My approach was to hire her and then leave the room," he joked later.
While none appeared onscreen, designers were very helpful to Field. Her $100,000 budget for the film's costumes was supplemented by help from friends from throughout the industry. Ultimately, she believes, at least $1 million worth of clothing was used in the film, making it one of the most expensively costumed movies in cinema history. The single priciest item was a $100,000 Fred Leighton necklace
Necklace
A necklace is an article of jewellery which is worn around the neck. Necklaces are frequently formed from a metal jewellery chain. Others are woven or manufactured from cloth using string or twine....
on Streep.
Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...
asked to dress Hathaway for the film, and Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian luxury industry fashion house. The company was started by the Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy. By 2005 their turnover was €597 million....
and Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
helped Field as well; with some contributions from Lebanese designer Georges Chakra
Georges Chakra
Georges Chakra is a Beirut-based Lebanese haute couture fashion designer. Since 2001, he has presented collections at Paris Fashion Week.Chakra first established his brand in 1985...
. Although Field avoids making Streep look like Wintour, she dresses her in generous helpings of Prada
Prada
Prada S.p.A. is an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women , founded by Mario Prada.-Foundations:...
. (By Field's own estimate, 40% of the shoes on Streep's feet are Prada.) Field added that much of the audience would not be familiar with Wintour's look and that "Meryl looks nothing like Anna, so even if I wanted to copy Anna, I couldn't." But, like Wintour and her Vogue predecessor Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman...
, the two realized that Miranda needed a signature look, which was provided primarily by the white wig and forelock
Forelock
The forelock or foretop is a part of a horse's mane, that grows from the animal's poll and falls between the ears and onto the forehead...
she wore as well as the clothes the two spent much time poring over look-books for.
Field said she avoided prevailing fashion trends for Miranda during production in favor of a more timeless look based on Donna Karan
Donna Karan
Donna Karan is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.-Early life:...
archives and pieces by Michaele Vollbracht for Bill Blass
Bill Blass Limited
Bill Blass Limited is a fashion house founded by American designer Bill Blass. It is known for its highly priced, beautifully cut womenswear, notable for its inventive combinations of patterns and textures...
, a look she describes as "rich-lady clothes." She didn't want people to easily recognize what Miranda was wearing.
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
thrown in for good measure. Blunt, on the other hand was "so on the edge she's almost falling off." For her, Field chose pieces by Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
and Rick Owens
Rick Owens
Rick Owens is an American fashion designer hailing from California, celebrated for his avant garde and subversive eye.He is married to Michele Lamy.Since 2003, Rick Owens has lived in Paris.-Biography:...
, to suggest a taste for funkier, more "underground" clothing. After the film's release, some of the looks Field chose became popular, to the filmmakers' amusement.
Tucci praised Field's skill in putting ensembles together that were not only stylish but helped him develop his character:
She just sort of sits there with her cigarette and her hair, and she would pull stuff — these very disparate elements — and put them together into this ensemble, and you'd go, "Come on, Pat, you can't wear that with that." She'd say, "Eh, just try it on." So you'd put it on, and not only did it work, but it works on so many different levels — and it allows you to figure out who the guy is. Those outfits achieve exactly what I was trying to achieve. There's flamboyance, there's real risk-taking, but when I walk into the room, it's not flashy. It's actually very subtle. You look at it and you go, "That shirt, that tie, that jacket, that vest? What?" But it works.
He found one Dries van Noten
Dries van Noten
Dries Van Noten is a Belgian fashion designer and an eponymous fashion brand. In 2005, the New York Times described him "one of fashion's most cerebral designers"...
tie he wore during the film to his liking and kept it.
Production design
After touring some offices of real fashion magazines, Jess Gonchor gave the Runway offices a clean, white look meant to suggest a makeup compact ("the chaste beiges and whites of impervious authority," DenbyDavid Denby (film critic)
David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
called it). Miranda's office bears some strong similarities to the real office of Anna Wintour, down to an octagonal mirror on the wall, photographs and a floral arrangement on the desk (a similarity so marked Wintour had her office redecorated after the movie). The magazine itself is very similar to Vogue, and one of the covers on the wall of the office, showing three models, is a direct homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to the August 2004 cover of that magazine.
She even chose separate computer wallpaper to highlight different aspects of Blunt's and Hathaway's character: Paris's Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
on Blunt's suggests her aspirations to accompany Miranda to the shows there, while the floral image on Andy's suggests the natural, unassuming qualities she displays at the outset of her tenure with the magazine. For the photo of Andrea with her parents, Hathaway posed with her own mother and David Marshall Grant
David Marshall Grant
David Marshall Grant is an American actor and playwright.-Life and career:Grant was born in Westport, Connecticut, to physician parents...
. One of the purported Harry Potter manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s was later sold at auction for $586 on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, along with various clothing used in the film, to benefit Dress for Success, a charity which provides business clothing to help women transition into the workforce.
Products
Aside from the clothing and accessories, some other well-known brands are conspicuous in the film.- Apple computers are used in the Runway offices, consistent with many real publishing companies.
- Bottles of Italian San Pellegrino mineral waterSan PellegrinoSan Pellegrino is a brand of mineral water with naturally occurring carbonation and additional carbonation added by the bottler, produced and bottled at San Pellegrino Terme, in the Province of Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy...
are seen in the Runway offices. - Miranda drinks coffee from a nearby StarbucksStarbucksStarbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
. - Andrea uses a Danger HiptopDanger HiptopThe Danger Hiptop, also re-branded as the T-Mobile Sidekick, Mobiflip and Sharp Jump is a GPRS/EDGE/UMTS smartphone produced by Danger Incorporated from 2002 to 2010....
2 (or a T-Mobile Sidekick 2) mobile phone, and Miranda a MotorolaMotorolaMotorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
RAZR V3Motorola RAZR V3Motorola RAZR is a series of clamshell mobile phones by Motorola, and is one of the series in the 4LTR line. They were first developed in July 2003 and were released in the market in the third quarter of 2004....
in silver, same as Nigel's. - The two are frequently driven around in Lincoln Town CarLincoln Town CarThe Lincoln Town Car is a full-size luxury sedan that was sold by the upscale Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company; it was produced from 1981 to the 2011 model years...
s and Mercedes-Benz S-ClassMercedes-Benz W221The Mercedes-Benz W221 is a chassis code of S-Class, the successor of Mercedes-Benz W220.The vehicle was unveiled in 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show.-Styling:The W221 S-Class' exterior styling is distinctly different to the W220...
S550 (without Vehicle registration plateVehicle registration plateA vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...
) sedans. - In one of the scenes Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway (actress)Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
is driving a Porsche 911 Carrera CabrioletPorsche 997The Porsche Type 997 , also simply called the 997 is the current version of the 911 family sports car built by German manufacturer Porsche in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen...
.
New York
- The News Corporation building on Sixth Avenue was used for the exteriors and lobbyLobby (room)A lobby is a room in a building which is used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or an entrance hall.Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression....
of Elias-Clark's headquarters. - The Runway offices are partially corridors in the neighboring Fox building and partially sets.
- The Elias-Clark cafeteriaCafeteriaA cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...
is the one at the ReutersReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
office in Manhattan. - Nate and Andy's apartment is on the Lower East SideLower East SideThe Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. - The restaurant Nate works at (and where Andrea, Doug and Lily eat dinner on occasion) is in TriBeCaTriBeCaTribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
. - The Smith and WollenskySmith and WollenskySmith & Wollensky is the name of several high-end American steakhouses, with locations in New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Columbus, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C.. The first Smith and Wollensky steakhouse was founded in 1977 by Alan Stillman, best-known for creating T.G.I...
and its kitchen were used. - The Calvin Klein showroom is used in the deleted scenes.
- Holt's studio is a loft used by an actual designer.
- The American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryThe American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
was used for the exterior of the museum benefit, while the lobby of one of the Foley SquareFoley SquareFoley Square is a street intersection and green space in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City and – by extension – the surrounding area, which is dominated by civic buildings. The space is bordered by Worth Street, Centre Street and Lafayette Street and lies...
courthouses is used for the interior. - The Priestly townhouseTownhouseA townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
is on the Upper East SideUpper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
and belongs to a friend of Finerman's. It had to be dressed on short notice after another one could not be used. - The AmtrakAmtrakThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
train the twins are taking is going up the Hudson RiverHudson RiverThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
at Haverstraw BayHaverstraw BayHaverstraw Bay, located in New York, is the widest portion of the Hudson River. The width of Haverstraw Bay is approximately 3.4 miles . The length approximately 5 miles from river kilometer 58 at Croton Point to river kilometer 66 at Stony Point...
. - Streep exits her limousineLimousineA limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....
, supposedly in Paris, at 77th Street and Central Park WestCentral Park WestCentral Park West is an avenue that runs north-south in the New York City borough of Manhattan, in the United States....
. - The New York Mirror newsroom where Andrea gets hired at the end of the film is that of the New York Sun.
Paris
The crew was in Paris for only two days, and used only exteriors. Streep did not make the trip.
- The fountain Andy throws her phone into is on the Place de la ConcordePlace de la ConcordeThe Place de la Concorde in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.- History :...
. - All the hotel interiors are actually the St. RegisThe St. Regis HotelThe St. Regis New York is a Forbes five-star, AAA five-diamond luxury hotel in Manhattan. It stands on Fifth Avenue, four blocks from Central Park.-Construction and opening:...
in Manhattan. The fashion shows were filmed on a soundstage in QueensQueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
. Likewise, Christian's hotel is the Times Square W HotelStarwood Hotels & Resorts WorldwideStarwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is a hospitality ownership and management organization, headquartered in White Plains, New York. One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties...
Editing
Mark LivolsiMark Livolsi
Mark Livolsi is an American film editor. He is primarily known for his work on the hit comedies Wedding Crashers and The Devil Wears Prada ; for each film, Livolsi was nominated for an ACE Eddie Award...
realized, as McKenna had on the other end, that the film worked best when it focused on the Andrea-Miranda storyline. Accordingly, he cut a number of primarily transitional scenes, such as Andrea's job interview and the Runway staff's trip to Holt's studio. He also took out a scene early on where Miranda complimented Andrea. Upon reviewing them for the DVD, Frankel admitted he hadn't even seen them before, since Livolsi didn't include them in any prints he sent to the director.
Frankel praised Livolsi for making the film's four key montages
Montage (film)
Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. It is usually used to suggest the passage of time, rather than to create symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory.From the 1930s to the 1950s,...
— the opening credits, Miranda's coat-tossing, Andrea's makeover and the Paris introduction — work. The third was particularly challenging as it uses passing cars and other obstructions to cover Hathaway's changes of outfit. Some scenes were also created in the editing room, such as the reception at the museum, where Livolsi wove B-roll
B-roll
B-roll, B roll, or Broll is the supplemental or alternate footage intercut with the main shot in an interview or documentary.- History :The term B-roll originates from the method of 16 mm film production from an original camera negative...
footage in to keep the action flowing.
Music
Composer Theodore ShapiroTheodore Shapiro (composer)
Theodore Shapiro is an American composer.Shapiro was born in Washington, D.C. He is best known for his film scores, particularly for the comedies State and Main, 13 Going on 30, Along Came Polly, The Devil Wears Prada, Fun with Dick and Jane, Idiocracy, You, Me and Dupree, Wet Hot American Summer,...
relied heavily on guitar and percussion, with the backing of a full orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, to capture a contemporary urban sound. He ultimately wrote 35 minutes of music for the film, which were performed and recorded by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, conducted by Pete Anthony. His work was balanced with songs by U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
("City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
"City of Blinding Lights" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the fifth track on their 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and was released as the album's fourth single on 6 June 2005. The song was a top ten hit in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and several other countries...
," Miranda and Andrea in Paris), Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
("Vogue" & "Jump
Jump (Madonna song)
"Jump" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her tenth studio album Confessions on a Dance Floor. Written by Madonna, Stuart Price and Joe Henry, the song was supposed to be released as the third single of the album...
," Andrea's fashion montage & her first day on the job, respectively), KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...
("Suddenly I See
Suddenly I See
"Suddenly I See" is a song by British singer-songwriter KT Tunstall and is featured on her debut album, Eye to the Telescope. It was released on 29 August 2005 as the third single from the album, charting at #12 in the UK Singles Chart . The single was a hit in Australia where it charted at #6 on...
," female montage during opening credits
Opening credits
In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There...
), Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and also shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination...
("Crazy
Crazy (Seal song)
"Crazy" is a song written by English soul artist Seal and producer Guy Sigsworth . The song was produced by Trevor Horn for Seal's debut album Seal . Seal's debut single, "Crazy" is one of his biggest hits, reaching the top five in the United Kingdom and the top ten in the United States...
," Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
photo shoot), Bitter:Sweet
Bitter:sweet
Bitter:Sweet is an electronic/trip-hop duo with jazz-like qualities from Los Angeles. The band is composed of Shana Halligan, who provides vocals and lyrics and composes the songs, and Kiran Shahani, who produces and composes the songs.- Appearances :...
("Our Remains," Andrea picks up James Holt's sketches for Miranda; Bittersweet Faith, Lily's art show), Azure Ray
Azure Ray
Azure Ray is an American dream pop duo, consisting of musicians Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink. The pair met at the age of 15 at the Alabama School of Fine Arts...
("Sleep," following the breakdown of her relationship with Nate), Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...
("Seven Days In Sunny June," Andrea and Christian meet at James Holt's party) among others. Frankel had wanted to use "City of Blinding Lights" in the film since he had used it as a soundtrack to a video montage of Paris scenes he had put together after scouting locations there. Likewise, Field had advocated just as strongly for "Vogue."
The soundtrack album was released on July 11 by Warner Music
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
. It includes all the songs mentioned above (except Madonna's "Jump") as well as a suite of Shapiro's themes. Among the tracks not included is "Suddenly I See," which disappointed many fans. It became popular as a result of the film although the single did not crack the U.S. Top Forty
Top Forty
The Top Forty or Top 40 is a music industry shorthand for the currently most-popular songs in a particular genre. When used without qualification, it typically refers to the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music songs of the previous week...
. It nonetheless became a popular radio hit.
Pre-release and marketing
Two decisions by 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
's marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
department that were meant to be preliminary wound up being integral to promoting the film. The first was the creation of the red stiletto heel
Stiletto heel
A stiletto heel is a long, thin, high heel found on some boots and shoes, usually for women. It is named after the stiletto dagger, the phrase being first recorded in the early 1930s...
ending in a pitchfork
Pitchfork
A pitchfork is an agricultural tool with a long handle and long, thin, widely separated pointed tines used to lift and pitch loose material, such as hay, leaves, grapes, dung or other agricultural materials. Pitchforks typically have two or three tines...
as the film's teaser poster
Movie poster
A movie poster is a poster used to advertise a film. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. They normally contain an image with text. Today's posters often feature photographs of the main actors. Prior to the 1990s,...
. It was so successful and effective, becoming almost "icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
ic" (in Finerman's words), that it was used for the actual release poster as well. It became a brand, and was eventually used on every medium related to the film — the tie-in reprinting of the novel and the soundtrack
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
and DVD covers as well.
The studio also put together a trailer
Trailer (film)
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
of scenes and images strictly from the first three minutes of the film, in which Andrea meets Miranda for the first time, to be used at previews and film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s until they could create a more standard trailer drawing from the whole film. But, again, this proved so effective with early audiences it was retained as the main trailer, since it created anticipation for the rest of the film without giving anything away.
Reception
The film did surprisingly well with audiences both inside and outside the U.S. Critics gave a fairly positive reaction to the film as a whole. Streep's performance drew universal acclaim, with some going as far as saying it was the only reason to see the film.Critical response
MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the film had an average score of 62%, based on 40 reviews.
The film holds a 75% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 184 reviews.
Initial reviews of the film focused primarily on Streep's performance, praising her for making an extremely unsympathetic character far more complex than she had been in the novel. "With her silver hair and pale skin, her whispery diction as perfect as her posture, Ms. Streep's Miranda inspires both terror and a measure of awe," wrote A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. "No longer simply the incarnation of evil, she is now a vision of aristocratic, purposeful and surprisingly human grace."
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith is an American critic, novelist and essayist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly....
agreed at the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
: "The snaky Streep wisely chooses not to imitate Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the book, but creates her own surprisingly believable character."
"Wintour should be flattered by Streep's portrayal," agreed Jack Mathews in the Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
.
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
David Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
, in New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine, criticized the film as "thin", but praised Streep for her "fabulous minimalist
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
performance."
J. Hoberman, Edelstein's onetime colleague at The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, called the movie an improvement on the book and said Streep was "the scariest, most nuanced, funniest movie villainess since Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
's nazified White Witch
White Witch
Jadis is the main antagonist of The Magician's Nephew and of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in C.S. Lewis' series, The Chronicles of Narnia...
[in 2005's
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 epic fantasy adventure film directed by Andrew Adamson and based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first published and second chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's children's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of...
]."
Blunt, too, earned some favorable notice. "[She] has many of the movie's best lines and steals nearly every scene she's in," wrote Clifford Pugh in the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
. Other reviewers and fans concurred.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the movie "thumbs down," while Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM...
gave it a "thumbs up."
While all critics were in agreement about Streep and Blunt, they pointed to other weaknesses, particularly in the story. Reviewers familiar with Weisberger's novel assented to her judgement that McKenna's script greatly improved upon it. A rare exception was Angela Baldassare at MSN Canada, who felt the film needed more of the nastiness others had told her was abundant in the novel.
David Denby
David Denby (film critic)
David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
summed up this response in his New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
review: "The Devil Wears Prada tells a familiar story, and it never goes much below the surface of what it has to tell. Still, what a surface!"
Reactions to Hathaway's performance were not as unanimous as for many of her costars. Denby said "she suggests, with no more than a panicky sidelong glance, what Weisberger takes pages to describe." On the other hand, to Baldassare, she "barely carrie[d] the load."
Amid the generally positive reception for the film, there were two criticisms apart from aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. Some journalists familiar with the fashion world thought its portrayal unrealistic, and some gay viewers took issue with how the film presented Nigel.
Depiction of fashion industry
Some media outlets allowed their present or former fashion reporters to weigh in on how realistic the movie was. Their responses varied widely.Booth Moore at Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
chided Field for creating a "fine fashion fantasy with little to do with reality," a world that reflects what outsiders think fashion is like rather than what the industry actually is. Unlike the movie, in her experience fashionistas were less likely to wear makeup and more likely to value edgier dressing styles (that would not include toe rings).
"If they want a documentary, they can watch the History Channel," retorted Field. Another newspaper fashion writer, Hadley Freeman of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, likewise complained the film was awash in the sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
and cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s that, to her, beset movies about fashion in general.
Charla Krupp, the executive editor of SHOP, Inc., says "It's the first film I've seen that got it right ... [It] has the nuances of the politics and the tension better than any film — and the backstabbing and sucking-up." Joanna Coles, the editor of the U.S. edition of Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...
, agreed:
The film brilliantly skewers a particular kind of young woman who lives, breathes, thinks fashion above all else ... those young women who are prepared to die rather than go without the latest Muse bag from Yves Saint Laurent that costs three times their monthly salary. It's also accurate in its understanding of the relationship between the editor-in-chief and the assistant.
Ginia Bellefante, former fashion reporter for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, also agreed, calling it "easily the truest portrayal of fashion culture since Unzipped
Unzipped (film)
Unzipped is a 1995 documentary film, directed by Douglas Keeve. It follows fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, Keeve's then boyfriend, as he plans and ultimately shows his fall 1994 collection...
" and giving it credit for depicting the way fashion had changed in the early 21st century. Her colleague Ruth La Ferla found a different opinion from industry insiders after a special preview screening. Most found the fashion in the movie too safe and the beauty too overstated, more in tune with the 1980s than the 2000s. "My job is to present an entertainment, a world people can visit and take a little trip," responded Field.
Nigel's homosexuality
Stanley Tucci told the gay magazine OutOut (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
that he played the part with no doubt whatsoever that the character was gay. While many viewers, gay and straight, shared the assumption, nothing in the film directly suggests his sexual orientation other than a brief glance he makes at an attractive man. In the novel, he, and the other male Runway staffers are proudly homosexual, often described as flamboyant, freely discussing their sex lives, and sometimes checking each other out.
There is none of this in the film. Instead, Nigel tells Andrea that, as a child, he told his family he was attending soccer practice when he was really taking sewing
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
lessons, and read Runway under the covers of his bed at night with a flashlight. Finerman also says that during his first scene in the film, his visit to Andrea's hotel room in Paris to celebrate his imminent promotion, they had not yet decided how "extravagant" he would be. The film also gives no indication that he is involved in any male/female marriage or relationship with a woman. Jeffy and James, two of the gay men in the novel, were eliminated, leading a viewer, David Poland, to point out this aspect of the film on his blog, The Hot Button, but also noted that it was part of a general desexualization that led him to call the movie No Sex in the City. Queer Beacon found Tucci's portrayal refreshingly free of overdone stereotypes, while another gay blogger expressed his displeasure that a movie about an industry well-known for its openly gay men seemed so determined to avoid the subject. Controversy notwithstanding, readers of Gay.com
Gay.com
gay.com is a chat, personals, and social networking website catering to the LGBT community. The site is a digital brand of Here Media Inc. In addition to community features, the site features LGBT-related news and features. As of September 2005, San Jose Mercury News ranked gay.com as the most...
voted the film the best of 2006. William Maltese, from AfterElton.com, called it "refreshing that the jokes in Devil do not come at Nigel's expense or because of his sexuality." It is also mentioned that Nigel is key for Andy's transformation from ugly-duck-to-swan that propels her into the second half of the film.
Queer Beacon also wondered if Doug might be gay, since he is more aware of Miranda's importance to fashion than Andrea; also, later, when Lily takes him from Andrea at the gallery to introduce him to "someone he might find interesting," she doesn't specify that person's gender. Sommer wrote that Doug was not written to be gay and was merely based on a friend of McKenna's.
Commercial
On its opening weekend, the film was on 2,847 screens. It grossed $27 million, second only to the much bigger-budget Superman ReturnsSuperman Returns
Superman Returns is a 2006 superhero film directed by Bryan Singer. It is the fifth and final installment in the original Superman film series and serves as a alternate sequel to Superman and Superman II by ignoring the events of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace .The film stars...
, and added $13 million more during the first week. This success led Fox to add 35 more screens the next week, the widest domestic distribution the film enjoyed. Although it was never any week's top-grossing film, it remained in the top 10 through July. Its theatrical run continued through December 10, shortly before the DVD release.
It had a very successful run in theaters, making nearly $125 million in the United States and Canada and over $325 million worldwide, a career high for both Meryl Streep, until Mamma Mia was released in 2008 and surpassed it, and Anne Hathaway, until Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
surpassed it in 2010 (as well as Get Smart in 2008, domestically)http://boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Actor&id=annehathaway.htm.
Anna Wintour
Anna WintourAnna Wintour
Anna Wintour, OBE is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for...
attended the film's New York premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
, wearing Prada
Prada
Prada S.p.A. is an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women , founded by Mario Prada.-Foundations:...
. Her friend Barbara Amiel
Barbara Amiel
Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel, Baroness Black of Crossharbour is a British-Canadian journalist, writer, and socialite. She is also the wife of former media baron and convicted felon Conrad Black.-Early life:...
reported that she said shortly afterward that the movie would go straight to DVD. But in an interview with Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
that aired the day the DVD was released, she called the film "really entertaining" and said she appreciated the "decisive" nature of Streep's portrayal. "Anything that makes fashion entertaining and glamorous and interesting is wonderful for our industry. So I was 100 percent behind it." Streep said Wintour was "probably more upset by the book than the film."
International
Weisberger's novel had been translated into 37 different languages, giving the movie a strong potential foreign audience. It would ultimately deliver 60 percent of the film's gross.The Devil Wears Prada topped the charts on its first major European release weekend on October 9, after a strong September Oceania and Latin America opening. It would be the highest-grossing film that weekend in Britain, Spain and Russia, taking in $41.5 million overall. Continued strong weekends as it opened across the rest of Europe helped it remain atop the overseas charts for the rest of the month. By the end of the year only its Chinese opening remained; it was released there on February 28, 2007.
Most reviews from the international press echoed the domestic response, heaping praise on Streep and the other actors, but calling the whole film "predictable." The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
, who found the film "moderately entertaining," took Blunt to task, calling her a "real disappointment ... strained and awkward." In The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Anthony Quinn said Streep "may just have given us a classic here" and concluded that the film as a whole was "as snappy and juicy as fresh bubblegum."
In most markets the title remained unchanged; either the English was used or a translation into the local language. The only exceptions were Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela, where it was El diablo que viste Prada and El diablo se viste à la moda. In Poland, the title was Diabeł ubiera się u Prady which roughly means "The Devil dresses (itself) at Prada" rather than "The Devil Wears Prada." In Turkey, the title was "Şeytan Marka Giyer," roughly translated as "The Devil Wears Brand-Names." In Romania, the title was "Diavolul se îmbracă de la Prada," which roughly means "The Devil Dresses itself from Prada", the same construction being found in the French title, "Le Diable s'habille en Prada". The Japanese version is titled "プラダを着た悪魔", which translates as "The devil wearing Prada".
Awards and nominations
Three months after the film's North American release (October 2006), Frankel and Weisberger jointly accepted the first QuillQuill Awards
The Quill Award was an American literary award that ran for three years in 2005-07. It was a "consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The Quills Foundation, the organization behind the Quill Award, was supported by a number of notable media corporations,...
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
Blockbuster Book to Film Award. A committee of staffers at the magazine made the nominations and chose the award winner. Editor Peter Bart
Peter Bart
Peter Benton Bart is an American journalist and film producer. He perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure as the editor of Variety, an entertainment-trade magazine....
praised both works.
The Devil Wears Prada’ is an energetically directed, perfect-fit of a film that has surprised some in the industry with its box-office legs. It has delighted the country, much as did Lauren Weisberger’s book, which is still going strong on several national bestseller lists
The film was honored
National Board of Review Awards 2006
The 78th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in film for 2006, were given on 6 December 2006.-Top 10 films:#Letters from Iwo Jima #Babel#Blood Diamond#The Departed...
by the National Board of Review as one of the year's ten best. The American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
gave the film similar recognition
American Film Institute Awards 2006
The AFI Awards 2006 honored the best 10 Movies and 10 Television Programs of the year.-Films:*Babel *Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan*The Devil Wears Prada...
.
The film received ample attention from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Hollywood Foreign Press Association
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is an organization composed of working journalists who cover the United States film industry for a variety of outlets, including newspapers and magazines in Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Today, the 90 members of the HFPA represent at least 55...
when its Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
nominations
64th Golden Globe Awards
The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards were aired on January 15, 2007. Some key dates announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are:The ceremony was broadcast live on NBC...
were announced on December 14, 2006. The film itself was in the running for Best Picture (Comedy/Musical) and Supporting Actress (for Blunt). Streep later won the Globe for Best Actress (Musical/Comedy).
On January 4, 2007, her fellow members of the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
nominated Streep for Best Actress as well.
Four days later, at the National Society of Film Critics
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
awards
National Society of Film Critics Awards 2006
The 41st National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 6 January 2007, honored the best filmmaking of 2006.-Best Picture::1. Pan's Labyrinth 2. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu...
, Streep won Best Supporting Actress for her work both in Devil and A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion (film)
A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 ensemble comedy elegy directed by Robert Altman, and was his final film, released just five months before his death...
. McKenna earned a nomination from the Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
for Best Adapted Screenplay on January 11, 2007.
The following day, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
announced its 2006 nominations
60th British Academy Film Awards
The 60th British Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts took place on 11 February 2007, and honoured the best films of 2006....
; Blunt, Field, McKenna and Streep were all among the nominees, as were makeup artist and hairstylists Nicki Ledermann and Angel de Angelis.
On January 23, 2007 Streep received her 14th Academy Award nomination
79th Academy Awards
The 79th Academy Awards ceremony , honored the best films of 2006 and took place on February 25, 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC. Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony for the first time. The producer was Laura Ziskin. The announcers were Don LaFontaine and Gina Tuttle.The nominees were...
for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, lengthening her record from 13 for most nominations by any actor male or female. Field received a Costume Design
Academy Award for Costume Design
The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
nomination as well. Neither won, but Blunt and Hathaway presented the last mentioned award, amusing the audience by slipping into their characters for a few lines, nervously asking which of them had gotten Streep her cappuccino
Cappuccino
A cappuccino is an Italian coffee drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed-milk foam. The name comes from the Capuchin friars, referring to the colour of their habits.- Definition :...
. Streep played along with a stern expression before smiling.
Proposed television series
The success of the film led to a proposed, but unrealised, American dramedy series that was in contention to air for the 2007–08 television season on FoxFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. It was to be produced by Fox Television Studios
Fox Television Studios
Fox Television Studios, Inc. is the TV production arm of the News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group, as well as being the production arm of Fox and a production arm of 20th Century Fox Television, Inc., itself a division of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation...
.
The series was to be based on the book and 2006 film (which was produced by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
), but with the premise adjusted for the confines of a traditional half-hour or one-hour dramedy with a single camera set-up. Fox TV president Angela Shapiro-Mathes told Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
: "The TV series will not be exactly like the movie or the book. The reason you loved the book and the reason you loved the movie was these were characters you really cared about in a world you wanted to learn more about. You can't read that book and not feel that the two characters are ones that you want to keep following. It's something you can get really passionate about." The project never got to the pilot stage, and was shelved.
Home media
The DVD has, in addition to the film, the following extras:- Audio commentaryAudio commentaryOn disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
from Frankel, editor Mark Livolsi, Field, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, producer Wendy Finerman and cinematographer Florian BallhausFlorian BallhausFlorian Ballhaus is a German cinematographer who has worked on several recent major Hollywood releases.Ballhaus was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, the son of Helga Mavia Betten and noted German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. At the age of 17, he moved to the U.S. with his family, when his father...
. - A five-minute blooper reel featuring, among other shots, unintentional pratfalls by Hathaway due to the high stiletto heelStiletto heelA stiletto heel is a long, thin, high heel found on some boots and shoes, usually for women. It is named after the stiletto dagger, the phrase being first recorded in the early 1930s...
s she had to wear. It also includes gag shots such as a chubby crewmember in loose-fitting clothing walking along the runway at the fashion show, and Streep announcing "I have some nude photographs to show you" at the Paris brunch scene. Unlike most blooper reels, it is not a collection of sequential takes but rather a fast-paced montage set to music from the film with many backstage shots and a split screenshotSplit screen (film)In film and video production, split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye...
allowing the viewer to compare the actual shot with the blooper. The many shots of actors touching their noses are, Rich Sommer says, a game played to assign blame for ruined takes. - Five featuretteFeaturetteFeaturette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...
s- "Trip to the Big Screen," a 12-minute look at the film's pre-productionPre-productionPre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
, discussing the changes made from the novel, how Frankel was chosen to direct and other issues. - "NYC and Fashion," a look at the real New York fashion scene and how it is portrayed in the film.
- "Fashion Visionary Patricia Field," a profile of the film's costume designer.
- "Getting Valentino," covering how the designer was persuaded to appear as himself in the film.
- "Boss From Hell," a short segment on difficult, nightmarish superiors like Priestly.
- "Trip to the Big Screen," a 12-minute look at the film's pre-production
- Fifteen deleted sceneDeleted sceneIn Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s, with commentary from Frankel and Livolsi available (see below). - The theatrical trailerTrailer (film)A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
, and promotional spots for the soundtrack album and other releases.
Closed captions in French and Spanish are also available. The DVD is available in both full screen and widescreen versions. Pictures of the cast and the tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
"Hell on Heels" were added to the red-heel image for the cover. It was released in the UK on February 5, 2007.
A Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
of the film was released simultaneuously with the DVD. The featurettes were dropped and replaced with a subtitle
Subtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
pop-up trivia track that can be watched by itself or along with the audio commentary.
Reception
Immediately upon its December 12 release, it became the top rental in the USA. It held that spot through the end of the year, adding another $26.5 million to the film's grosses. To date the film has made $95,886,194 in DVD sales. The following week it made its debut on the DVD sales charts in third position.Deleted scenes
Among the deleted scenes are some that added more background information to the story, with commentary available by the editor and director. Most were deleted by Livolsi in favor of keeping the plot focused on the conflict between Miranda and Andrea, often without consulting Frankel.Frankel generally approved of his editor's choices, but differed on one scene, showing Andrea on her errand to the Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
showroom. He felt that scene showed Andrea's job was about more than running personal errands for Miranda.
See also
The September IssueThe September Issue
The September Issue is a 2009 American documentary film about the behind-the-scenes drama that follows editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her staff during the production of the September 2007 issue of American Vogue magazine. The film is directed by R.J. Cutler and produced by Eliza Hindmarch and...
; a 2009 documentary film which follows Anna Wintour prior to the release of the September 2007 Vogue issue.
Works cited
- Weisberger, LaurenLauren WeisbergerLauren Weisberger is an American novelist and author of the 2003 bestseller The Devil Wears Prada, a speculated roman à clef of her real life experience as a put-upon assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour....
; The Devil Wears Prada, Broadway Books, New York 2003, ISBN 0-7679-1476-7
External links
- Rich Sommer's blog posts on the movie (includes full gag reel).
- The Devil Wears Prada Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna: Screenwriting Lecture part of the BAFTA Screenwriters on Screenwriting series.